


Meant To Be

by SunshineScorpius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: AUs, Alternate Universe, Friends to Lovers, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, M/M, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23929663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius
Summary: Some people are meant to be together in every universe, no matter what. Albus and Scorpius are two of those people: in muggle worlds, in Wizarding worlds, they are meant to be.Or, 5 alternate universes in which they end up together and 1 real one.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 103





	Meant To Be

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I hope everyone enjoyed this, I tried to do a different spin on the '5 times and 1 time' idea and I hope it pays off :) I wrote this a while ago and decided that now I feel confident enough to post it again, I hope you guys like it and please let me know :)

**one**

A knock at the door sent his dog, Leo, barking madly in that direction and Albus rolled his eyes. He’d told his siblings to always let him know whenever they were visiting, but it seemed they’d – once again – failed to the listen to him. Not that it was hard to shoot him a quick text just to let him know they were on their way, especially on his day off.

Leo stopped barking at Albus’ request, and Albus stood to get the door. He briefly stopped to check the mirror, righting his jumper and running a hand through his hair. It wouldn’t normally matter, but if it was James, he would no doubt begin the conversation by telling him that ‘ _Sundays are not days to dress like slobs,’_ to which Albus would retort with some remark about how James looks like a slob every day, and James would punch him in the arm and then they’d hug and say how much they’ve missed each other.

Albus opened the door, the witty remark he had ready dissolving on his tongue as he was met with a tall blond boy that jumped at Leo’s unnecessarily loud bark.

“Oh, you’re not Mrs Macmillan,” he said, his voice rather squeaky but quite cute, if Albus did say so himself.

Albus couldn’t help the small smile that etched itself upon his face. “It’s nice to know I don’t resemble an eighty-year-old woman with a limp from her recent hip replacement,” Albus quipped, wishing more than anything he didn’t decide to wear his Sunday lazy clothes – maybe James was right.

“I’m sorry, I must have the wrong apartment,” he mumbled, biting his bottom lip endearingly.

Albus nodded. “Winnie lives down the hall,” Albus said and pointed. Leo barked again – a demand for attention from the new boy he’d never met before – and the boy jumped. “Not scared of dogs, are you?” Albus asked.

“Oh no, it’s more the loud and unexpected bark.” Scorpius said, placing the bag he was holding down and slightly squatting. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” Albus turned to Leo, “say hello, Leo.” Leo did as he was told, excitedly surging forward to greet the stranger with his happy-go-lucky wagging tail and a huge smile that only golden retrievers seemed to be able to achieve.

“Leo like the constellation?” the boy asked, stroking him happily and even accepting the kisses Leo was willingly giving.

“No, like Leonardo DiCaprio, he’s a great actor; I’m very fond of him.”

The boy looked at him dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape, and Albus couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face.

“I’m kidding, definitely like the constellation.”

The boy grinned. “It suits him.” He then turned to Leo. “We’re name twins, well, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Albus asked.

“Oh, I’m also named after a constellation, just not the same one as him.” The boy gave Leo one more stroke before standing up and extending his hand. “I’m Scorpius.”

“Albus,” Albus said, shaking his hand.

“It was nice to meet you, but I should probably get going to my intended destination,” he said, picking up the bag and holding it in show.

Albus, only because he didn’t want Scorpius to leave just yet, decided to ask further questions. “What’re you visiting Winnie for? She doesn’t often get people visiting, other than her granddaughter and you are definitely not her,” he quipped.

Scorpius smiled. “I’m not, I’m actually Mrs Macmillan’s surgeon, I performed her hip surgery.” Albus resisted the urge to tell him he looked a little young to be a surgeon. “It’s a little unorthodox to visit patients, but I just wanted to check in and I picked up her medication for her and baked some muffins.”

Albus raised his eyebrows. “Do you do that for all your patients?”

He shook his head fondly. “Just the ones that leave a mark, she’s a pretty special woman.”

“She is,” Albus agreed, thinking of all the times she’s invited him round for tea, and Albus doesn’t like tea but he’ll drink it if it means hearing her wonderful stories.

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you,” Scorpius said, running his free hand through his hair and making it slightly stick up. Albus decided to go out on a whim and do something he’d never done before – ask a boy out. He was always too nervous, but Scorpius was too perfect not to see again. So, he took a deep breath and reached for that courage he knew he had deep down inside of him.

“Wait,” he blurted just as Scorpius was about to turn away. “Would you maybe like to get coffee sometime?”

Scorpius smiled softly and it was the most beautiful sight in the world. “I would like that, Albus. I’m free after, if you are?”

“It’s a date,” he said boldly.

Scorpius smiled and waved shyly and Albus watched him walk across the hall. Then he closed the door and phoned his little sister because what the _hell_ does he wear on a date with a cute boy in which he only had an hour or so to get ready for?

**two**

Maybe Scorpius shouldn’t have been staring at the boy who sat across from him in the library at the same time every Friday evening, yet he couldn’t help it. He was utterly endearing with curly black hair that fell carelessly in front of his face and whenever he would get frustrated with it, he would angrily run his hands through it. One time he came with it pinned back with a bandana which simply was _not_ fair on Scorpius’ heart.

And every week Scorpius thought: _this week, this is going to be the week I talk to him_. And every week, he fails.

This week, however, Scorpius was provided with the perfect opportunity. Because this week when the boy settled down, he pulled out a book: To Kill a Mockingbird, which was not only Scorpius’ favourite book, but he was also doing an assignment on it set by his home school teacher. It still took him quite a while to build up the courage to approach the mysterious boy, but eventually Scorpius decided to simply bite the bullet. What was the worst that could happen?

If the boy rejected him, Scorpius simply had to find a new library to work in.

He waited until he ran low on tea before standing to head to the cafeteria. Scorpius walked past the boy, did a fake double take and said, “oh, To Kill a Mockingbird? I’m doing a project on that also,” and hoped to whatever higher power existed that he didn’t come off like a complete weirdo.

The boy slightly smiled. “Me too, something on the racial diversity of the characters.”

Scorpius had to resist the urge to gasp. “Oh, that’s such a great question.”

“It is?”

“There is a lot you can talk about,” he bit his lip and, for the second time in his life, decided to be brave. “I could help you, if you want?”

The boys emerald eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not!” Scorpius said, maybe with a little too much excitement. “I just need a refill,” he gestured to his empty cup in his hand. “Can’t do anything without a cup of tea.”

The boy looked at his own empty cup. “I need a refill too.”

“What’s your poison, I’ll get it,” Scorpius said.

“Are you sure?” Scorpius nodded. “Just a black coffee, please.” He smiled a toothy grin at him.

Scorpius nodded and went off to get both their drinks before placing them on the table and retrieving his belongings from his old table. He and the boy – whose name was Albus – talked for hours, mostly about the book, but they also laughed and joked around. For the first time in his life, Scorpius felt like he had a friend.

And they made an agreement to meet up the following Friday and do it all over again.

**three**

_Dear Scorpius,_

_I know we’ve been exchanging letters for a few months now and I’m really enjoying it, it’s almost killing me knowing you’re so far away and we can’t just meet up in real life. No one I know in real life is as sweet and kind as you are. I know we’ve never met, but I’d really like to, if that’s something you’d like to?_

_Yours, Albus x_

_#_

_Dear Albus,_

_I’ve been thinking of the same thing! I even asked my parents if a trip to the UK would be possible soon, but I’m not sure they’re particularly fond of the idea. Truth is, I’ve never met anyone like you either. Even in letters you make me laugh and I didn’t think that was possible. I hope one day this friendship will be more than just a few exchanged letters._

_Yours, Scorpius x_

_#_

_Dear Scorpius,_

_I tried asking my parents if we could go on holiday to France this summer, they said they’d think about it. I just wish I could come on my own, but they’d never let me! I miss you. I didn’t think it was possible to miss someone you’ve never met before. Is that weird? I’m sorry if it is._

_In other news, I finally mastered that spell I was struggling with! The summoning charms! My dad told me he also struggled with those spells in school too, but in his defence he was competing in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. How cool would it be if that was still around? Maybe then we’d have the chance to meet._

_Yours, Albus x_

_#_

_Dear Albus,_

_I miss you too. Every letter I receive from you fills me with so much joy and for a moment I forget all about my loneliness. So no, it’s not weird at all._

_I don’t think I could ever enter the tournament; I’d be much too scared! People die in those things, it was a good job they stopped it when they did. Though, I agree that it be nice to have again if it means we could meet._

_This might be a weird suggestion, but maybe we could floo call when we’re both home for the holidays? I’d really like to hear your voice._

_Yours, Scorpius x_

_#_

_Dear Scorpius,_

_Great news, my mum approved of the France trip! We’ll be coming to you at the beginning of the school holidays! How fantastic is that!_

_Yours, Albus x_

_#_

_Dear Albus,_

_That’s incredible, I can’t wait to show you all the beauties of France! Oh, we have so much to do, I’ll start planning! We can spend time on the beach and sit under the stars at night, and you have to see the city and all it's museums! Ooh, and the sweet shops and cafe's are to die for!_

_Yours, Scorpius x_

_#_

“You’re here,” came a soft voice.

“I’m here,” Albus confirmed as he locked eyes with the boy he’s been in love with since he received that very first letter. Scorpius blinked a few times, then ran at him and tackled him in a hug. Albus felt at home in his arms.

**four**

Albus sat at the bar stool and quickly ordered the first drink that came to mind, hoping to drown out the awful day he’s had at work with a nice alcoholic beverage. He was supposed to be meeting his brother, James, but he’d been caught up at work himself and had to cancel. His little sister was still away at school, so she certainly couldn’t come drink with him.

He was on his own.

He decided he was only going to have a couple before heading home to his cat when a boy with hair so white it looked like a halo sat upon his head quickly took a seat next to him.

“This is going to sound insane because you don’t know me, but my ex just walked in and I would really like to avoid him, so would you mind pretending to be on a date with me?”

It was like Albus was dreaming. How is it the boy of his dreams just happened to show up and ask him to be his pretend date? Unless, of course, he was dreaming. Or the alcohol had drowned out what little sanity he had left in his brain. And maybe it was pretend, but that didn’t mean nothing could come of it.

“Er, ah, sure,” Albus stuttered, and then mentally slapped himself for being so unintelligible.

“Great, I’m Scorpius, by the way.”

“Albus,” he managed. Albus coughed slightly and put his drink down. “So, who are we avoiding?”

Scorpius stopped looking around for a moment to look at Albus, seeming almost shocked that Albus referred to them as ‘we’, before subtly nodding towards a man at the other end of the bar.

“We’ve been over with for a year and it ended pretty badly, but now he tries to talk to me every time he sees me and I am not in the mood to deal with that today,” Scorpius rambled, turning his bright eyes back on Albus. “Anyway, enough about that, the least I could do is buy you a drink?”

Albus wasn’t going to say no to that.

“I’ll have whatever you’re having,” he said and smiled. Scorpius ordered the drinks, dramatically presenting the drink to Albus when it arrived. It was turquoise in colour and Albus immediately turned his nose up. He decided to entertain Scorpius, who was watching him intently, as he took a sip and scrunched his nose in disgust.

“Why is it so sweet?” Albus asked, giving the drink a stir.

“That’s the catch, it’s one of the nicest alcoholic drinks because it’s so sweet and tastes like juice, but there is quite a lot of alcohol in it, so you just get drunk really quick! I discovered it in my first year at uni and it was a blessing sent from the heavens above,” he theatrically gestured to the sky.

“You’re quite dramatic, you know that?” Albus asked, unable to hide the smile.

“So I’ve been told, quite frequently,” Scorpius grinned at him. His smile, however, dropped when he caught his ex making his way over. Albus followed his gaze and quickly looked back.

“How would you feel about kissing me?” Albus asked and Scorpius looked at him wide eyed. “It’d be a sure way to get rid of him?”

“Are you sure?”

“Only if you are.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

There was a moment of hesitation between both of them before Albus nodded slightly, Scorpius nodded back and together they leaned towards each other. Scorpius’ lips were soft against his; he seemed to fit perfectly against Albus as his hands moved to rest upon his waist. Albus got lost in his lips, feeling weirdly content even in the arms of a stranger.

When they pulled apart, they barely even noticed that Scorpius’ ex had turned around; they only had eyes for each other.

“How about we finish our drinks and go somewhere else?” Scorpius asked.

Albus thought about it for a moment, about how he was planning on a quiet night. But, Scorpius was far too enchanting to pass up, so he promptly agreed.

**five**

A shelf stacking job was probably one of the most boring jobs in the entire world, Scorpius thought. It was just a matter of getting stock from the back and putting it on the shelves and doing that for six hours straight. There was one thing, however, that made the job much more exciting. And that was Albus.

Albus worked on the tills, which in hindsight, wasn’t the best for him due to his temper. He was often told off by their boss for not smiling enough, to which he’d find Scorpius’ eye and roll his eyes, causing him to laugh. He and Albus didn’t get to talk much, they usually just spoke mostly through facial expressions or hand gestures. Albus’ favourite was pretending to shoot himself in the head whenever an older customer was stood there complaining about the prices.

They worked most weekend shifts together, so whenever Scorpius was beginning to feel a little bored, he sought out Albus. As he entered the store for the beginning of his shift, he couldn’t help but notice that Albus wasn’t working the tills. A frown etched its way onto his face as he walked through the store and into the back room.

Albus wasn’t there either.

He put his things away and righted his uniform before heading out to the stock room. He was definitely not expecting Albus to be in there, but there he was, hiding behind the stack of milk.

“Jesus,” Scorpius said, jumping and holding his hand to his heart.

“Hi,” Albus responded, coming out of his very bad hiding spot sheepishly.

“Are you hiding? Aren’t you supposed to be on the tills?” Scorpius asked.

“Yes, but, there’s a mean woman out there and every week she comes in and every week she’ll come to _my_ till and she’ll moan and shout and just be horrible to me,” Albus said, folding his arms and looking like a grumpy kitten. His hair seemed to be even messier today than usual and Scorpius thought it was rather unfair that someone could look _that_ cute.

“Oh, you mean the woman who always has that really large hat on?”

“She’s the one.”

“She threw a packet of peanuts at me last week to get my attention,” Scorpius said. “They burst open all over the floor and I had to clean it up whilst she told me that I don’t do my job well enough because if I did they wouldn’t have split open, as though my job involves packaging the bloody things,” Scorpius ranted, all whilst Albus was looking at him with an amused smile.

“She is so mean,” Albus agreed. “Honestly I’d love to take that hat and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine,” he said and Scorpius burst out laughing at the, quite frankly, blunt statement. Albus watched him for a moment before joining in the laughing himself.

Once the laughter had died down, Albus frowned. “I have to go out there, don’t I?”

“Why don’t you help me stack some shelves until she’s gone? We can face her together,” Scorpius suggested. It would work, their boss wasn’t in that day and their assistant manager was usually quite chill with the jobs that they did. Albus wasn’t necessarily needed on the till as there were others to do that until this woman had left the store.

“Okay, let’s do that. Teach me the great art of shelf-stacking,” Albus grinned, leaning up against the trolley.

“You might mock me, but this is a serious job for serious people,” Scorpius said, raising his eyebrows. Albus smirked at him, so Scorpius pulled the trolley slightly and made Albus stumble, very nearly falling to the floor.

He quickly righted himself and saluted at Scorpius. “I’ll be serious, sir!”

“This way then, please,” and Scorpius gestured to the store and Albus grinned, but he was only happy because Scorpius let him push the trolley.

That shift showed Scorpius that stacking shelves isn’t always so boring when you have a boy with vibrant green eyes accompanying you, who laughs at your jokes and judges all the customers with you. It was made even better when Albus asked Scorpius out for coffee after their shift. He couldn’t stop smiling after that.

**one**

“One year,” Albus said, looking across the chess board at Scorpius. “Can you believe we’ve been together for a whole year?”

“And we’re celebrating by playing Wizards Chess and eating so many sweets that we’ll feel sick by the time we’re done,” Scorpius responded, smiling at him as he made a move.

“And the hot chocolate, the elves in the kitchens really treated us with that one,” Albus reminded and picked up his mug to clink it against Scorpius’. “Also, check,” Albus said and Scorpius looked at the board quickly, almost spilling his hot chocolate.

“How did I not see that coming?” He whispered to himself. He, however, managed to save himself from losing. “You know,” Scorpius said as Albus made his next move, “my mum used to believe that she and my dad would always be together, no matter what universe they lived in. They would always find their way to each other and I think that’s rather beautiful.”

“I think you’re rather beautiful,” Albus responded automatically. “Do you think that about us?”

“I used to think it was crazy, but she always told me that when I fell in love, I would soon believe it and yeah, I do now.”

“Scorpius, there are hundreds of alternate universes, there has to be one we don’t end up in,” Albus said.

“There is, you don’t exist in it.” Albus couldn’t help but laugh at the blunt statement, causing Scorpius to laugh as he realised what he said.

“Check mate,” Albus said and Scorpius gaped, laughter suddenly faded. It was always interesting to play against Scorpius; they were both so good and so competitive that it was always a surprise as to who won.

“I can’t believe this,” he said, folding his arms.

“This is what happens when you get distracted with alternate universe theories,” Albus teased, placing the chess board on the floor and crawling across the bed to meet Scorpius.

“I could beat you in those alternate universes,” he quipped.

“Forget about those, because I bet right now they aren’t doing this,” Albus said and caught Scorpius up in a kiss.

“Some of them might be, there are thousands and thousands,” Scorpius mumbled against his lips.

“Stop thinking about them,” Albus tried again to distract him with a kiss.

“I bet there’s an alternate Albus out there who would happily listen to all my theories,” Scorpius retorted as they leaned back into a lying position.

“Why don’t you go find him then?” Albus mumbled, slightly pulling away.

“I don’t need him, I’ve got you,” Scorpius said, pulling him back into a captivating kiss and the rest of the world faded away.


End file.
